Something Is Strange (1)
Something Is Strange (1)
"You goddamn. You absolute son of a bitch!"
A man bundled in thick furs was climbing a snowy mountain. At a glance, his rough appearance might have marked him as a hunter, but surprisingly, he was a knight.
"Damn it all. To think I'd come back here."
Seth ground his teeth. It had only been a month since he'd vowed never to show his face in the North again. But as his luck would have it, that bitch of a commander had pulled rank on him.
- You ought to go up north for a bit. From now on, head up at least once a month and check on the kids.
So what if the kidnapped kids were dead? Was he supposed to drag the whole knight order there?
"She'd wait that long, sure."
Seth knew full well that the order was nothing but an excuse. Olivia had too much intel, so they'd sent him to scavenge whatever scraps he could pick up.
He could understand it. The witch Olivia was undeniably on a different level from other witches.
She sold out the locations of other witches without a second thought. She also carried around hundreds of high-grade potions instead of poisons.
The fact that you could even hold a normal conversation with her in the first place already set her decisively apart from other witches.
If Olivia would leak just a little information about demons, it would be a huge boon to the empire's defenses.
'And she's strong.'
Given the nature of their work, the Night Crows often encountered high-ranking people. Not just the elders of each Tower, but occasionally they even had dealings with the Tower Lords themselves.
Yet none of the mages among them had been stronger than Olivia. Calliope's instincts had never been wrong about that sort of thing, so it was probably a certainty.
Of course, that didn't include the Red Tower Lord and the Gold Tower Lord among those Tower Lords, but anyway.
It meant that the witch Olivia possessed magical power surpassing most Tower Lords, yet still hadn't succumbed to demonic energy.
Normally, anyone reaching that point would have gone insane long ago.
'Just how strong is her willpower?'
Why had someone like that become a witch? They said nobody in the world was without their hardships, but still...
Seth halted mid-thought.
Boom.
A heavy footstep resounded not far away. Right after, the ragged breathing of a beast followed.
'...A Yeti?'
Seth had deliberately kept his fighting spirit unconcealed. This usually caused most monsters to recognize their place and run. It was the best method when you wanted to avoid unnecessary combat.
But occasionally, there were monsters that were drawn in by fighting spirit instead. The so-called overconfident types.
And a Yeti, in the North, was exactly that overconfident type.
It possessed the brute strength to tear a grown man apart with ease, hide so thick that blades wouldn't pierce it, and—as with every living creature in the North—terrifying vitality.
So much so that whenever rumors of a Yeti sighting spread, the White Tower would dispatch an elder-grade mage.
But it was no match for Seth.
"Perfect timing. I was just getting pissed off."
A savage grin spread across Seth's face.
Tossing aside his heavy furs, Seth slammed his fists together. His hulking biceps rippled with every movement.
"Come on!"
"Rrraaaaaugh!"
Spotting Seth, the Yeti charged at a terrifying speed.
'Ignorant brute!'
Seth's fists flared with ink-dark Aura.
The thing was certainly huge, living up to its name as a large-type monster.
'Heh heh heh heh. Perfect!'
At that size, it wouldn't go down from a single punch.
Once he pounded this Yeti into a pulp, his anger might ease up a little...
"The Yeti's over theeeeere!"
"Horororororororo!"
"That one's mine for sure!"
Huh?
Seth paused mid-punch and turned his head.
Were there still barbarians in the North?
No, that couldn't be. It had been over fifty years since the northern barbarians were absorbed into the empire.
So what in the world were those sounds?
The moment a question mark rose on Seth's face—
CRACK-A-BOOOOOM!
The clear sky suddenly darkened, then spat out a bolt of lightning.
The lightning's target was the Yeti's head.
"Kkueeeeegh!"
With a sound like a pig being slaughtered, the Yeti collapsed.
Magic?
Olivia immediately flashed through Seth's mind. But the power was too weak for her doing.
The fact that the Yeti was still alive and twitching told him as much.
"Then who in the world...?"
Seth's words didn't continue.
From beyond the hill, three figures were sprinting toward him at a mad dash. Seth recognized every one of them.
"Hahahahaha! Life is live combat! The last hit is mine!"
"Aramis, you crazy bastard! Blink is cheating!"
"Teach yourself if you're so jealous!"
Fwoosh!
Aramis emerged from thin air.
Shwaaaaaak!
A spear pulsing with terrifying cold flew at the Yeti. The Yeti, which had barely risen to its feet, was pierced through its leg joint and crashed back down.
"Hup!"
As Aramis focused his mind, a far larger spear materialized at his fingertips. An ice spear radiating a keen menace. Without a shred of hesitation, Aramis launched it.
TWOOOOM!
Its head pierced clean through, and the Yeti died instantly without even a final scream.
"...Huh."
Seth couldn't close his mouth.
There was nothing wasted. Even accounting for the fact that its attention had been fixed this way, they'd hunted it far too easily.
And this wasn't some low-grade monster like a wolf. It was a Yeti.
'At that age, with that level of skill?'
Just what had happened in a single month...?
It seemed Olivia was at least carrying out her role as a teacher properly so far.
"Noooooo! My Yetiiiiii!"
Jeina wailed and collapsed in front of the Yeti's corpse. As if she absolutely couldn't accept the situation, she grabbed Aramis by the collar and shook him violently.
"Aramis, you crazy son of a biiiitch!"
"Heh heh heh. As our master says: the one who fails to secure the kill is the fool. Anyway, with this I'm exempt from two training sessions!"
...Was she teaching them right?
The way they talked, you'd think they were street thugs.
With other mages, he'd understand. Mages were notorious for having terrible personalities.
But these three came from the White Tower.
Which was famous for only gathering good-natured, kind-hearted mages.
They definitely hadn't been like this just a month ago...
In a flash, the nightmares Seth had buried deep in his memory resurfaced. Images of disciples endlessly tormented under the name of education.
- I'm dying, I'm dying, I'm seriously dyinggg!
- Krrrgh.
- Kieeeeeek!
Hm.
Yeah, that would change someone.
They'd survived a month under that insane demon-bitch. The fact that they'd survived at all was the impressive part.
Seth accepted this in an instant.
*****
"So..."
Olivia, who had been tapping an ice-formed chair, stopped and looked at Seth.
"Your reason for coming all the way here is just to check on my disciples?"
"...For now, that is so."
"Here we go again. Spinning bullshit. Want me to beat the crap out of you?"
"Hieeeek!"
Seth instinctively raised his arms to shield himself. The man who had faced a Yeti over four meters tall with nothing but battle-lust couldn't stand his ground against the delicate Olivia.
Olivia tilted her head.
"Speak. What did you really come for?"
"That... I put my shame aside and returned because I have a proposal."
"What kind of proposal?"
"Broadly speaking... you could think of it as an information exchange."
Olivia laughed as if she couldn't believe her ears.
"Information exchange? What kind of information could a shut-in like me possibly need?"
"The commander actually said that's exactly why you would need it."
"Why?"
"I don't know. She didn't tell me."
"What a bitch."
"I concur. She's also deeply unpleasant."
Inwardly, Olivia was impressed. As Calliope had guessed, Olivia did need information.
No matter how much of an old-timer Olivia was, she couldn't predict how massive the snowball rolled by fifteen regressors would become. She at least needed to know how the political landscape was shifting so she could prepare.
"What you want in return is personal intel on other witches, right?"
"...Could we also include matters related to demons?"
"That's a bit pricey, you know?"
"A price is simply something to be paid."
"Fair point."
This witch really was different. A witch who served a demon was casually talking about selling out demons.
To illustrate how absurd this was, it was like a Saintess mocking God in the middle of the temple.
'...She's definitely insane.'
She wasn't normal.
But precisely because of that, he could trade with peace of mind.
"Before we get to the main topic, the Night Crows handle all kinds of information. So long as you don't leave the continent, no human can escape the eyes of the Night Crows."
"So I'm not human?"
"Th-that's not what I meant. Powerhouses like you are excluded from the start, excluded!"
Seth waved his hands in denial. He barely collected himself and continued.
"Anyway, information on witches and demons is high-grade intel that even we have extreme difficulty obtaining."
"Right. Because when you try to torture them, they just bite their tongues and die."
"...Correct."
Seth nodded.
"The commander granted me full authority. That means I can arbitrarily trade any information except for intel related to the imperial family."
"Alright, I get it, so go ahead and reel it off."
"...Just reel it off? You're not going to ask whose information you want or anything?"
Olivia stroked her chin.
'Should I ask about Melina?'
She was done with Kiel, so next it was time to meet Melina.
"What's the Gold Tower Lord up to lately?"
Seth's face soured. He apparently hadn't expected the Gold Tower to come out of Olivia's mouth, of all people.
"...If you stir up an abduction scandal at the Gold Tower, even we won't be able to clean it up."
"It's not that. I'm just curious what the Gold Tower Lord's been doing these days."
"If that's all, then it's a story even the street urchins know, so I'll give it to you for free."
Seth spoke as if bestowing a generous favor.
"The Gold Tower Lord has gone into seclusion."
"...Seclusion?"
"Literally. For nearly a month, the Gold Tower Lord hasn't shown her face outside the Magic Tower. I heard she's even refused all food and drink..."
"...Refused all food and drink?"
A strange look settled on Olivia's face.
The hell kind of bullshit is this?